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Show C': ' "' " ' 111111 " - 1 MM. ! U.S. women fare better than ( men as World Cud ooens During the past week the first three races on the World Cup circuit were held, a womens' and mens' slalom at Kranjska Gora, Yugoslavia, and a mens' downhill at Schladming, Austria. In all, the best finish for the United States was by Tamara McKinney, the 1983 overall World Cup winner, who finished second at Kranjska Kran-jska Gora behind 1982 overall winner Erika Hess of Switzerland. Phil Mahre, last year's overall World Cup champion for the third straight year, turned in the best finishes in both the mens' events ninth in the slalom and 19th in the downhill. Last Thursday's womens' race was run on a narrow strip of man-made snow at Kranjska Gora due to a warm early winter in Europe. It was a neck and neck affair from the start between Hess and McKin ney. After the first run Hess . had a slim one one- hundredth of a second lead over McKinney, while Czechoslovakia's Olga Charvatova was in third, ahead of the U.S.'s Christin Cooper by the same slim margin. The second run Hess opened up her lead, finishing with a combined time of 1:33.39. McKinney held onto second with a time of 1 : 34.01. Poland's Malgorzata Tlalka took third at 1:34.85, and Charvatova slipped back to fourth at 1:34.87. Cooper fell to sixth at 1:35.33. Friday was the men's turn. After the first run on one of the steeper course on the World Cup, Liechtenstein's Liechten-stein's Andreas Wenzel held a small lead over 1983 World Cup Slalom Champion Ingemar Stenmark. But on the second run, the course started taking its share. Stenmark took a dive to I I make way for Wenzel, who nearly did the same shortly thereafter, losing his goggles in the process. Even with this problem he was good enough to hold onto the win with a time of 1:39.55. Peter Popangelov of Bulgaria took second at 1:40.30, and Liechtenstein's Paul Frommelt was third at 1:40.49. Steve Mahre left the course cour-se on his first run to disqualify himself, but brother Phil turned in a combined time of 1:41.06 to place ninth. "From here it can only get better," Phil said afterwards. afterwar-ds. Sunday it was on to Schladming, Austria for the opening downhill of the season for the men. Tough waxing conditions, where the course got colder as the skiers approached the finish due to shaded areas, was blamed for the poor showing by the Americans. ? Phil Mahre took 19th, and ; the next closest American . was Doug Lewis in 23rd place. Austria's Erwih, Resch, the first racer on the , course, finished first, while , teammate Harti Weirather -took second, and Canadian Steve Podborski placed third. Franz Klammer, last year's World Cup downhill champion, placed fifth. The press time of this paper prohibits coverage of the next World Cup event, held yesterday and today in Val d'Isere, France, the womens' downhill, giant slalom, and combined. It will appear in next week's paper, as will the results from the men's downhill, super giant slalom, and combined from Val d'Isere, the World Cup cross country races from Reit im Winkl, West Germany, Ger-many, and the opening World Cup jumping from Thunder Bay, Canada. |